


Unravel

by lacegloves



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Past Rape/Non-con, Prison, idk what tags to use
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-08-31
Updated: 2014-09-03
Packaged: 2018-02-15 13:01:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,459
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2229990
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lacegloves/pseuds/lacegloves
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One morning Hawkeye had handed him the paperwork on the blonde boy and immediately his age seemed the most noteworthy as he had looked over the mug shot and vague listing of data.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first time writing Fullmetal Alchemist fanfiction. I know my chapters tend to be on the short side, I do apologize. I've always been best with short oneshots, but I think I'd like to try my hand at something a little longer.
> 
> Edward is starting out at thirteen here, Alphonse at twelve. Roy is twenty-eight... I intend for eventual Edward/Roy, but let's see where this goes for now, hm?

Roy looked down at the gleaming automail arm while the Captain babbled on about his unique find. It had been a few days since news of the child had crossed his desk. One morning Hawkeye had handed him the paperwork on the blonde boy and immediately his age seemed the most noteworthy as he had looked over the mug shot and vague listing of data. He looked no more than thirteen, barely out of childhood.

Edward, as the paper read, had been picked up on a simple stealing offense. Though that had not been their reason for holding onto him for so long; now it was because of his lack of paperwork. He wasn't listed in any sort of birth record or census report, leading the conspiracy theorist of a Captain to believe the boy was an illegal alien from a neighboring nation.

Honestly, it was possible. Though blonde hair wasn't so strange, but the gold eyes were a trait even Roy had never seen on any Amestrian in his 28 years.

“Anyways, Colonel, we ended up having to remove the automail arm… the little spy was performing weird transmutations and every time he’d just clap his hands to do it…” Roy glanced up at that, the barest amount of curiosity passing over his features.

“He was using alchemy?” he asked, that curious expression quickly turning to a frown. “Without a transmutation circle, you say?” He had never heard for such a thing, transmutation by merely clapping ones hands.

“He sure was, nearly got away from us even! They had to shoot him down…” he said, gesturing down the hall as he turned and lead Roy toward the isolation cells.. “Once we disconnected the arm, that all stopped easy enough though… so I don’t see any reason to transfer him to a prison for alchemists.”

Both men lingered a floor above, overlooking the rail as two armed Lieutenants opened the cell and began to escort the young boy away. Roy stared down at that wildy messy blonde head, noticing bruises up and down the younger man’s body, peeking out from every hem of his clothing. “How are the other prisoners treating him…?” he asked suddenly, almost jerking back in surprise when the boy tipped his head upward and looked straight at Roy as if his words had carried down far enough.

“Well, we keep him down here mostly for his own safety. He’s admittedly, a lovely young man…” the Captain said, making Roy’s stomach twist at the insinuation. One of the men guarding the boy snapped harshly at him when they noticed his upward gaze, knocking the blunt of their gun into Edward’s side. A glare flashed over the teen’s eyes just before he looked back down, following as he was told.

“I want to meet him…” Roy said simply, his face once more a blank palette as he turned to the Captain. The other man nodded, responding that he’d ready a few men to supervise. “Alone,” the Flame Alchemist said sharply, interrupting the other’s words with a stern look.  
The room they’d been given was a disused office, empty of all but a small table and a couple of chairs. It’s size seemed that of a janitorial closet and was likely the reason no one seemed to want the room. Roy sat on one side of the desk, prim and pristine in his uniform while the boy sat feral and dirty, reeking faintly of blood and dirt and… sex. Guarded golden eyes watched Roy’s every move.

“I've heard you can perform transmutation without a circle…” he started, shifting just barely to place his pocket watch atop the table edge, showing exactly why he would have interest in such things. Edward’s gaze darted to the watch before once more settling on the man.

“I still need a circle…” was the simple and yet cryptic response. Roy frowned at that, had the Captain been wrong in his assessment. For a moment he thought that was all the teen would say and he moved to speak once more, cut short when the blonde elaborated kindly. “I have to know the circle’s components in my head… so in short, I still need the circle…”

“I see… so you've memorized multiple arrays.” he said simply.

“You’re Colonel Roy Mustang, aren't you?” the boy asked and Roy narrowed his eyes just barely at that. Edward nodded to the other’s watch. “When you set the watch down… I saw the array on your glove, it was only a quick glance, but it’s clearly related to fire… and air composition…” he paused a moment. “And you’re a state alchemist, with clearance in this area… you help run Eastern Command.”

Roy nodded at the other’s assessment. “Ah… do you mind if I ask for your name then? As it’s clear you know mine?”

“You should know it..”

“The paperwork here says it’s Edward Elric, but that name doesn't exist in any records outside this facility. So, I guess the question is, honestly… is that your true name?” he explained, tilting his head to the side in a show of open curiosity.

“We were born in a small town, like I told the captain, it’s likely we weren't registered…” he said plainly.

“We..?” Roy asked, catching the pronoun before Edward seemed to have the chance to realize his mistake. The blonde paled at the simple word and it was almost instantaneous. His body went rigid and tense before Roy’s eyes and he screwed his mouth into a tight frown, gold eyes darkening into a glare.

Everything now, he guessed, would be an uphill battle.

“If you can… transmute without drawing a physical circle, as the Captain says…. I’d like to offer you a chance to get out of here. You are clearly skilled in alchemy… intelligent and observant…” he said, noting how his words drew out any sort of response from the teenager. “The reasoning for holding you has long since expired, the Captain is simply keeping an orphan off the streets at this point…”

That earned him a deepening in Edward’s frown and what sounded like a soft growl.

“If I sign the paperwork today, you should be released by Friday evening…” he said bluntly.

That broke down the other’s glare, leaving him in plain shock. It was as if he’d never seen an act of kindness before...

“But you must have a guardian, I refuse to send you back out to steal again… my suggestion, is that you remain with me until a better option arises…”

And like that the glare returned full force, the blond boy hissing out, “Hookers too expensive for you, or something?”

“Let me finish…” Roy said simply, ignoring the other’s accusation. “I believe your alchemic ability could warrant special permission from the state, the may allow you to take the state certification exam… if that happens you’d be considered an emancipated minor. You’d be paid by the state, in return you would complete errands here and there…”

“And be drafted into war if another breaks out…” Edward filled in the unsaid truth. His expression was that of someone that had been served a sour dish, as if the idea simply sat wrong with him. His eyes darted idly to the side, studying the wall intently as he thought over the offer. “You really think they’ll accept me for this exam of yours?”

“I can’t promise that.” he said honestly. “It depends on your skill…”

“If you touch me, I will cut off your hands…” he mumbled darkly and Roy nodded, as if in consent.

“You need not worry about that… I, unlike your… roommates, do not find my pleasure with little boys…”

Edward colored at that, slamming his one fist on the table hard. “Who are you calling little, asshole!?”


	2. Chapter 2

Edward had a black eye and a split lip when Roy came to pick him up early Friday morning. His golden eyes were tired and dull as he laid on the sheet-thin mattress of the medical ward. Roy could just barely make out his blank expression around the nurse.

The young woman was seated at Edward’s side, carefully cleaning and sewing up his most recent wound; a jagged, but thankfully shallow, stab to Edward’s pale expanse of skin.

To his left, Captain Daeel explained that after they had moved Edward back to his assigned cell, his neighbor had taken little more than a couple hours before he decided he wanted to bend the blonde boy over. Though Edward remained untouched the man had still managed to beat down Edward’s attempts at defense before guards had been able to restrain him.

Roy swallowed down his desire to empty his stomach, nodding a bit if only to show he had been listening. Instead he focuses his watchful gaze on Edward. The young blonde, he noticed, didn’t even flinch with each press of the needle into his skin. He wondered vaguely if they’d given him drugs or if Edward was just that numb to the treatment by now.

He was dragged away from his musings when the door opened. Both he and the Captain watched idly as the local mechanic entered, carrying the teen’s automail arm and a small pack of tools.

“You’re certain you want us to reattach it?” Daeel asked as he turned to Roy once more.

He nodded simply in response, unable to watch Edward in this broken state much longer. He looked so pathetic, torn apart and unable to fully defend himself.

He had read the reports from Edward’s attempted escapes and they had alluded to a rambunctious teenager that took shit from no one. Someone that could hold his own against any kind of attack. Not this…

Not this child that lay still before him.

“Perhaps you should step out a moment, I’m told when the nerves reconnect, it will be painful…” the Captain said, a hint of disdain in his voice, as if he found Roy’s gentle temperament something to look down on.

He shook his simply head in response, remaining silent as he watched them push and pull Edward to lay on his back. The young teen barely responded, offering only a brief glance when he saw his automail limb laid out next to him. 

The nurse finished up bandaging his wound and hurriedly stepped back to the mechanic take over. She took a deep breath and Roy frowned just barely at how everyone seemed to tense up. A few of the guards had even drawn their guns, keeping them leveled on the blonde teen as the mechanic began to work.

It took several moments for him to get everything aligned properly, the man briefly commenting on how he’d never seen anything quite like it. Finally Roy heard the careful clicking of metal joining together. It was that sound that seemed to make Edward tense.

Teeth clenched as Edward braced himself. Roy watched the shallow rise and fall of the young man’s chest as he took in several deep breaths.

A sharp turn of the wrench and that small body spasmed sharply, Edward’s flesh hands clenching tightly at the edge of the mattress. White teeth were bared and a sudden hiss passed his lips. “F-fucking hell,” he cried out, his legs jerking slightly as if to help defuse the pain that shot through his shoulder and chest.

Everyone seemed to stand still, waiting for some kind of volatile reaction. Minutes passed in silence as Edward relaxed against the bed and finally the Captain seemed to deem it safe, his hand lifting as the guards lowered their guns.

Roy took that at his chance, stepping forward and offering a thank you to both the nurse and mechanic. The mechanic, Allen, as he was called, reached to shake his hand firmly, sitting back on the stool and looking over at Edward. He clapped a hand gently on the boy’s shoulder and Edward rolled his eyes, lifting his automail hand to brush Allen’s touch off.

Edward pushed himself up then, settling with the thin sheet around his waist. He watched as Allen dug in his bag, withdrawing a wire cutter. He glanced back at the Captain, holding it up briefly until he got a nod of approval.

“Thank god…” Edward almost moaned out, lifting his wrist to offer the chain link bracelet. The bit of silver listed his name and prisoner number. With a small crack the cutters broke through the chain and it slipped off of Edward’s slender wrist.

It didn't take long for Edward to dress and ready himself, the blonde washing his hair out quickly in one of the basins. Roy watched him idly, raising an eyebrow when the teen clapped his hands and lifted them to his hair to dry it out. 

It… really was something. Alchemy was a science, but seeing it used so easily… it looked more like magic.

Edward braided his hair as he walked and Roy gestured toward the door idly, leading the teen through several halls until finally they were met with daylight. 

The ride home was a flat out awkward experience. Roy had called for a car, hoping he might have a chance to speak to the teenager on their way back to his place, but the blonde had pointedly cast his gaze out the window as soon as they had gotten in. Roy was left to watch as Edward lifted a finger to draw idle, meaningless patterns over the glass.

He cleared his throat loudly as they neared their destination, knowing that some things had to be said even if Edward was unreceptive. The only response he got was Edward’s finger stilling against the glass.

“I don’t intend to be strict, I’m not your father…” he started simply, pursing his lips a bit. “But if you go out, I’d like you to return by midnight and…” he stopped short, thinking over what else was important enough to mention, “Nothing illegal, please.”

Edward just scoffed at that, turning to glance back at Roy with an amused sort of expression. “And if I don’t agree?” he asked.

Roy just shrugged. “I’m not bailing you out twice…” he said simply.

Gold eyes narrowed at that, a frown forming over those soft features. “Why are you doing this?”

“Honestly…?” he asked, looking to Edward with raised brows.

“Honestly.”

Roy offered a thoughtful hum at that, his head canting to one side. “I suppose the simple response is that you’d look good for my career. You’re clearly a skilled alchemist… a prodigy, even.”

“You want to take the credit for recruiting me..?”

“Is that okay with you…?”

Edward rolled his eyes once more. “Don’t expect me to call you ‘sir’ or anything… but hey, if you really feel like trying, everyone needs a hobby.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know these chapters are short, please bear with it.


End file.
